6 April 2016

Easter in Finland

I got home from
work unexpectedly a little bit earlier today and it makes all the
difference so that I already can post about the first part of my
holiday, which was Easter in Finland. I didn't want to drag this post
out too long either so I'm glad that I got to write it now. I haven't
spent Easter at home in Finland for many many years, not since 1997,
if my memory doesn't fail me. Therefore it was nice to go there this
time of the year and I really do like Easter as a holiday. We spent
Easter with my family relaxing and eating a lot vegetarian food and
desserts.

The most exciting
thing was that the ice started leaving the river while we were there
and this is sometimes a real spectacle in the parts where I come
from. The moving ice can take bridges with it on its way out. This
time it wasn't quite that dramatic, but it was nice to look at
nevertheless. The weather changed fully while we were there going
from snowy to muddy within a few days. It was white Easter (there was
more snow than at Christmas...). All in all the weather was quite
warm throughout, probably more so than in the UK, which is always
nice when there's still snow around.

Luckily for us the
distillery bar of the Kyrö Distillery Company was open and we got to
taste some new drinks again. They were all amazing, featuring
ingredients like sea buckthorn and marsh Labrador tea mixed with the
excellent whisky and gin by the distillery. It's always a pleasure to
visit.

Here are some
photos from the trip, I hope you'll like them. The first ones were
taken just when leaving Gatwick airport and England was looking quite
pretty and green. I always enjoy when there are clear views through
the plane window. One of the photos is a new Finnish bread sort
featuring vegetables. The one in the photo is a beetroot-carrot one
and they also had a parsnip-carrot variation. Both were very good,
especially toasted. I will soon post some Copenhagen posts as well.

2 comments:

Looks really lovely - I would love to try that bread - am curious if your whole family is vegetarian when you said you spent easter sharing veg food with your family or is there a mix of meat and vegetarian. Watching the ice break up sounds spectacular - it must be very thick if it has lasted a few months - hard to imagine. Is it usually a white easter or just when easter is early.

My whole family isn't vegetarian, my partner is and my mum often prefers vegetarian food these days, although she sometimes eats meat. This time we had purely vegetarian food throughout, but for example at Christmas dinner there would be a traditional ham for the others. The ice does get very thick, even a meter or so, but this winter had been milder there so that it was actually thinner than normal. Easter can be white, at least so that there's still snow around in places, but sometimes it can be more spring like. The ice normally also leaves a bit later, if it has been a "proper" winter. I can imagine that it must sound fairly weird to people who haven't experienced this sort of weather conditions. I do often miss the real change of seasons instead of the one-two English seasons. :)

Who is The VegHog?

A vegetarian hobby cook and urban gardener born in Finland, currently living in Denmark. I try to develop my cooking skills by making a wide variety of veggie dishes, some of them traditional and some new creations. My favourites include veggie burgers, squashes, organic and local produce, cider, spelt, rye, pizzas, pasta dishes, risottos and sea-buckthorn.
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